The trio had no more than touched the bell when he was beside them.
"What papers are you boys with ?" he inquired easily, merging himself at once with the party.
One man told him--and looked him up and down.

"Thought I knew all the fellows," added the speaker, a middle-aged man, "but never ran into you before.

What's your rag ?" "'Town Gossip,'" replied the agreeable young gentleman.
"'Town Gossip'!" The old reporter gave a grunt of contempt.

"And you've come to interview Mrs.De Peyster ?" "Yes." "First time I ever knew that leprous scandal-scavenger and black-hander to send a man out in the open to get a story." Evidently the old reporter, whom the others addressed as "colonel," had by his long service acquired the privilege of surly out-spokenness.

"Thought 'Town Gossip' specialized in butlers and ladies' maids and such--or faked up its dope in the office." "This is something special." The young gentleman's smiling but unpresuming _camaraderie_ seemed unruffled by the colonel's blunt contempt, and though they all drew apart from him he seemed to be untroubled by his journalistic ostracism.
The next moment the door was opened by a stout, short-breathed woman, hat, jacket, and black gloves on.